Inspired by Jesus: For Easter, 15 of the best movies based on the story of Christ

Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of Christ, which inflamed many because it placed Dafoe’s Jesus in ‘sexual situations’ and allowed him to experience self-doubt.

To many Canadians it still stands as the greatest story ever told.

The dramatic life and grim death of Jesus of Nazareth is the source of arguably the most important narrative in Canada, since the census shows 67 per cent of Canadians still describe themselves as Christians (55 per cent in B.C.).

A majority of Canadians maintain a passion for Jesus’ story despite the increasing number of citizens who report they are atheists, agnostics, spiritual-but-not-religious, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus or Sikhs.

Movies about Jesus have radically changed, however, since The Greatest Story Ever Told came out five decades ago. Reviews of that American epic about Jesus ranged from “powerful” and reverential” to “a big windy bore.” Things have improved.

Based on a Vancouver Sun survey of leading film critics in Canada and the U.S, many North American and foreign-language films are now doing superior jobs depicting Jesus’s Easter story — and of generally illustrating Christian themes, often without mentioning the man at all.

Some of the most acclaimed films that explicitly take on the Jesus story include the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, the existential Gospel According to St. Matthew, the animated Miracle Maker, and Denis Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal.

Equally intriguing films replace the historical Jesus with allegorical figures who simply act in Christ-like ways — including a rebellious mental patient (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), a Death Row prisoner (The Green Mile), a female restaurant owner (The Spitfire Grill) and a space alien (E.T.).

With the arrival of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, The Vancouver Sun looks at 15 of the top movies ever made about the historical Jesus, about metaphorical Christ figures and about central Christian themes. New movies try to overcome a century-old problem with explicit Christian cinema — that even Christian magazines, such as Relevant, have recently asked, “Why are Christian movies so bad?” The author cites “stilted dialogue,” “childish plots,” and “sanctimony.”

But despite overwrought productions such as The Robe and Son of God, many quality films exist about Jesus, who came to be seen as the messiah or “Christ” (from the Greek).

While some Christian movies continue to be produced with cardboard characters and platitudinous messages, others challenge viewers to think outside their usual boxes — to experience the transformative spirit of Jesus in places they had not expected.

Jesus is turning up in the entertainment news in 2014, with about major films based on the Christian gospels and the Bible.

The creators of the reality TV series Survivor, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, were the first off the mark this year with The Son of God, which provides a grand and traditional account of Jesus’s ministry. It has received mostly poor reviews in the secular media, with critics calling it dull and heavy-handed.

Noah, based on the story of the flood in the Hebrew Bible (which Christians call The Old Testament), is drawing a better critical response and earning millions at the box office.

Meanwhile, Ridley Scott is about to release Exodus, and Lionsgate Films is preparing a fall release for Mary, Mother of Christ.

There is also a saga playing out over the Internet about another Jesus movie; with unsubstantiated reports that Bono, the lead singer of U2, has been working with George Lucas and Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop) on a rock-opera film titled Jesus Christ, Megastar.

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How we picked the moves

To ensure readers will have no shortage of quality Jesus-related movies to watch over Easter and throughout the year, The Sun surveyed the views of four leading North American movie critics (who happen to be Christians) for their views on the best Jesus movies.

They are American theologian Marjorie Suchocki, who serves on the Ecumenical Prize jury of the Montreal and Berlin film festivals; Vancouver-based Peter Chattaway, who reviews films for Christianity Today and the website www.artsandfaith.com; Ron Reed, playwright and director of Vancouver’s Pacific Theatre, and; Darrel Manson, senior writer for the website www.hollywoodjesus.com.

Based on their views, and those of Sun ethics and religion writer Doug Todd, we highlight the top five movies with Christian motifs in three categories:

1 Films that explicitly explore the historical Jesus and New Testament accounts of his life and crucifixion.

2 Films that metaphorically re-tell a modern-day story about Jesus, in allegory.

3 Films that delve, without saying so, into Christian themes.

As the lists attest, contemporary film directors have not finished with exploring the life and transcendent significance of this 2,000-year-old figure. There seems little doubt artists will continue to mine the rich veins of Easter for a long time to come.

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TOP 5 EXPLICITLY ABOUT JESUS

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

Made by atheist-Marxist Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew “offers an extraordinary sense of being exposed to an utterly different culture,” says an admiring Ron Reed. There is the wondrous “strangeness” of Jesus striding down a dusty road and tossing off comments to baffled peasants, such as, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” Every sentence of this black-and-white 1964 film is taken directly from the gospel. “The weird thing is you (the viewer) don’t really like Jesus!” says Marjorie Suchocki. “He barks out one thing after another. An existential Christ. Very powerful.”

Jesus Christ Superstar

This famous rock opera opens with a bus arriving in the Israeli desert. A theatrical troupe walk off the bus and don their costumes to perform the Christian passion play. The 1973 Norman Jewison film adaptation captures the ongoing theological struggle over how Jesus could be both human and divine. As Manson says: “We get the questions, ‘Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, who are you, what have you sacrificed? … Do you think you are who they say you are?’” In reality, says Manson, these questions are directed at the viewer.

The Last Temptation of Christ

Biblical literalists protested this Martin Scorsese movie when it was released in 1989, but the director had made clear the story did not precisely follow New Testament accounts. That did not stop some French fundamentalists from throwing a Molotov cocktail at a movie theatre. However, like the novel on which it is based, the film is a fantasy depicting Jesus’ struggle with various forms of temptations, including doubt, depression, lust, fear and the desire to escape his horrible fate. Scorsese received an Academy Award nomination for best director.

The Miracle Worker

Even though its done with Claymation, this unusual treatment of Jesus’ story “may show the richest understanding of the gospels,” says Reed. The 2000 Welsh-Russian production, which was shown in theatres in Europe and on television in North America, achieves a certain uncanny realism through its animation techniques. Says Chattaway: “The film stars the voice of Ralph Fiennes, whose Jesus is by turns tender, humorous, exasperated, and above all very, very engaging.”

Jesus of Montreal

This Denys Arcand movie, which won the Cannes Ecumenical Prize in 1989, is hard to categorize, but that does not mean it is not perhaps the most riveting movie examination ever of the life of Jesus. When a young actor is asked to perform the role of Jesus for a performance in a Montreal cathedral, he eventually becomes like a living, suffering Christ confronting the gritty beauty and failure of contemporary urban existence. Says Suchocki: “May be the best (Jesus) film of all.”

Other contenders: Godspell, The Passion of the Christ, The Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth

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TOP 5 WITH METAPHORICAL CHRIST

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Even though director Steven Spielberg is Jewish, people have long seen powerful Jesus themes running through this 1982 science-fiction blockbuster. The first thing the alien space creature, E.T., says in English is “Be good.” E.T. has a divine quality, performs miracles and endures persecution from angry people who are incapable of trusting him. The wise creature ends up sacrificing his life for Elliott, his young Californian friend.

Babette’s Feast

Based on a novel by Karen Blixen, this 1988 movie features Babette as a fabulous French chef living in exile as a servant on the rugged coast of Jutland. One momentous day, she receives the chance to cook a transformative feast for the austere peasants who have taken her in. Many viewers have noted the sumptuous meal, somewhat like The Last Supper, brings fresh life, joy, healing and forgiveness to the 12 people who partake of it.

The Green Mile

Although some critics found it too heavy-handed, the allegorical figure of Christ appears as a big black prisoner on Death Row in this 1999 movie based on a Stephen King novel. Wrongly convicted John Coffey (whose initials of course are J.C.) miraculously heals a mouse and the warden’s wife, makes the ultimate sacrifice and passes on his “power” to a kind prison guard named Paul (played by Tom Hanks).

The Ruling Class

In this adventurous dark comedy, white-robed Peter O’Toole stars as a dancing man with a split personality who appears among the British upper classes believing he is Jesus Christ. As Suchocki says: When the O’Toole character in this 1972 movie acts out the role of “a meek and mild God/Christ of love, everyone thinks he’s crazy.” But when the same character believes he is a God of wrath and judgment, “everybody’s glad he’s sane again.”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Based on Ken Kesey’s novel, this popular 1975 movie starring Jack Nicholson as a rebellious, full-of-life mental patient named McMurphy is replete with Jesus imagery. McMurphy brings liberation to the mental asylum’s outcasts. And it is no coincidence that 12 men, like apostles, follow McMurphy on a soul-discovering fishing trip. McMurphy’s eventual death mirrors that of Jesus on the cross. And, even after he is gone, McMurphy’s infectious laughter works like a redemptive spirit in his followers.

Other Contenders: Breaking the Waves, Pale Rider, Cool Hand Luke

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TOP 5 WITH CHRISTIAN THEMES

The Hunt

Nominated for best foreign picture at the 2014 Oscars, Mads Mikkelsen plays a good-hearted teacher who endures Christ-like persecution after a false accusation of child molestation. The hyper-vigilant and hypocritical village residents are asked to face some hard truths about themselves in a climactic scene in a Danish church on Christmas Eve. The Hunt won the Ecumenical Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Life of Brian

This broad comedy is also difficult to categorize. Even though many worried this 1979 Monty Python movie was spoofing the New Testament, Jesus plays no real role in it. The plot centres on an accidental messiah named Brian “whose frustrations with ungrateful lepers and slow-on-the-uptake followers echo Jesus’ own,” says Chattaway. “Many Bible movies flatter their audiences (“Of course we’d have been awestruck in Jesus’ presence!”) but Brian reminds us that the gospel is often obscured by the people who hear it and don’t quite get it.”

The Spitfire Grill

A woman with a mysterious past, Percy Talbot, arrives in the sleepy American town of Gilead and transforms everyone with her unusual loving ways in this 1996 movie. Set in a café called The Spitfire Grill, Talbot, like Jesus, embraces the outcasts and gives the townspeople courage as she goes out of her way to serve them physical and spiritual food that will nurture their souls.

Motorcycle Diaries

Many Christians continue to see parallels between Jesus’s vision of justice and the idealistic dreams and eventual assassination of revolutionary Che Guevera. In this acclaimed 2004 Walter Salles movie, viewers meet Guevera as an earnest young medical student (who could literally not tell a lie) as he takes a road trip and discovers a beautiful, but poor and politically repressed, South America.

The Man Without a Past

Made in Finland, this much-admired film follows a fellow who is mugged and beaten so badly he develops amnesia and begins living in container bins — until he is given a hand by the Salvation Army. Directed in 2002 by Aki Kauriskami, the kindly man befriends the poor and sees reality somewhat like an angel who has suddenly fallen to Earth. The theme of the delightful movie basically aligns with the song title, “What if God was One of Us?”

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